st: Problem parsing strings that contain "$CHAR"

[<benoit.hebert@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca>]

Dear Stata users,

I have to parse the lines of SAS syntax files that contain 1) the position of a variable in a raw data file, 2) the name of the variable, and 3) the data type of the variable. Examples of such lines are:

@04075    Variable_B    $5.
@04080    Variable_C    $CHAR6.

Both "$#" and "$CHAR#" mean that the variable is a string variable of # characters. I have no problem parsing the first line above, but am looking for advice on what to do with lines that contain a sequence like "$CHAR6". Such sequences appear to be evaluated first and before the string is parsed, and results in "", as in below:

. loc line @04080    Variable_C    $CHAR6.
. di "`line'"
@04080    Variable_C    .

Commands like regexm and tokenize or functions like subinstr also see "." instead of "$CHAR6.", making it impossible (for me at least) to retrieve all the relevant information in these lines. 

Any help appreciated,

Benoit-Paul Hebert
Recherche en politiques / Policy Research
RHDCC/HRSDC

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